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Trijicon HD Night Sights Yellow front GL101Y

May 13, 2017

Description

The Trijicon HD GL101Y for the Glock pistol are a three dot tritium night sight, yellow front post accent design. The rear is U-notched and serrated. These sights have a .144 inch front sight width and .215 visible blade height. The rear U-notch is .169 and the rear visible blade height is .231, the HD's come in two front sight colors red and yellow. I chose yellow because I prefer yellow/green to red for catching my eye. I purchased the HD's when they were first released in 2011 for retail price, which I think was $150 at my local gun shop. They have not really come down in price anywhere and are available for $141.00 on Amazon. I have carried these HD's on my EDC G19 for about five and a half years, jumping from two different G19's (Gen4 to Gen3). I have fired over 50k rounds through both pistols with the HD's installed on them.

In 2010 the Gen4 series of Glock was released and I had picked up a G19 to replace my Gen3 G17 I was carrying at the time. I had OEM night sights on the gun (just like my duty gun) and that was how I carried concealed until Trijicon HD's were released into the market. At that time the group I was training with made a hard switch to the HD's and I did the same, picking up a set of the yellow front HD's for my new EDC Gen4 G19. This was a "new" development at the time in the carry world and a lot of people made the switch. Coming from OEM night sights from Glock it was a huge improvement in visibility and at the time that was what I wanted, front sight visibility during the draw.

First Opinion

Out of the box I immediately remember making the comment "these are huge, and bright!" The front sight was a visibly larger than the OEM night sights I replaced them with. I believe the factory Glock night sights are .159 front sight width. The front sight was very easy to pick up for me as I did a bit of dry fire to get used to picking them up while drawing.

The rears were very easy to pick up and the serrations aided in front sight alignment. I did not particularly care for the U-notch as it had no felt difference to me at the time. It allowed me to align the front into the rear notch very easily and that was what I bought them for. Note that the above two photos were taken after I installed the HD's on my EDC gun (in 2011, I believe) and after about 500 rounds of shooting and constantly checking zero of the gun I ended up pushing the rear sight to the right a good bit.

In the Field

The next few years after I got the HD's I would hit the range and randomly post up Range Reports, at the time usually shooting a 200 Drill. As my EDC Gen4 G19

As you can see from the above IG video, the front yellow front sight was very easy to pick up when drawing quickly and following up shots. The close range (7 and in yards) fast shooting was very smooth and very applicable to what an EDC gun would need for possible application in most CCW or LE Duty pistol engagements of that distance.

I shot with the OEM barrel for a few years and then moved later on I had a barsto barrel fitted into my EDC Gen4 G19. I started going through the process of getting used to the zero and accuracy standards with the HD's.

One of the early 200 drill targets I shot with the barsto.

Sometime around July of 2015 I swapped the barsto to a Gen3 G19 and put a newly purchase S3F Threaded Barrel into my EDC Gen4 G19. After a bit of zeroing I started to dial in the sights to the barrel. The 175 was not a normal 200 drill at the time and I began to have some issues with the HD's in terms of 25 yard accuracy. My normal accuracy range was in the mid 150's for a 200 drill with the S3F and HD's. I continued to try to iron out the accuracy quirk I seemed to have developed and would compare against a Gen3 G19 with Defoor all black sights I had, I posted about one trip in this range report post. The Defoor's were just more accurate for me at 25 yards, which translated to more accurate up close, especially after Ameriglo released the Defoor front night sight - GL-312-165. Around the same time I had posted a review of three different Ameriglo iron sights for Glock's including the all black Defoor sights. It would be a constant battle between the HD's and Defoor's because I really like a skinny front sight and trade off was the bright yellow easy to see front sight.

Ownership and Usage

I am not nice and I do not baby my firearms. They get slapped around during training, I hit stuff with them, I rack them off things, people and holsters. I have broken sights before in various ways and these sights were no different having been on two different EDC guns for a number of years and having seen thousands of hours of dry fire, training and range time.

I had to rezero the HD's a few times over the years and move them around as needed. The front sight never budged and it took a good beating. I do not remember what I hit it on but you can see a nice little dent on the side. I do not know what the HD's are made out of but clearly it is something resilient.

The rear sight had one spot which was a little out of spec and required a little bit of filing when I first got it on the base which connects to the bottom of the dovetail.

As you can see the front edges of the HD's which would point towards the front sight are pretty shiney, that's because they have gotten a lot of contact due to their design.

The one thing you constantly hear online and anyone with any time of experience carrying with HD's knows that the front of the rear sights is super sharp. The HD's were designed to have a slight forward angle which allows the person running the gun to catch clothing and other objects when trying to rack using the rear sight. In this context Trijicon did an excellent job designing the HD's. In a practical application setting the rear HD sight has ate through numerous shirts, both undershirts and cover garments.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

You can check out my review of the Ameriglo Defoor, CAP and Pro-I dot sights to see comparisons against these HD's. After having the HD's on my EDC G19's for a few years and many tens of thousands of rounds downrange, I moved on. I went back to the Defoor sights with Tritium in the front sight. Even used some Testor's yellow paint on the front sight just to give it a little bit of color. I decided to test out Fiber Optic sights sent to me by Dueck Defense (still using for an eventual review) but I started having issues with my EDC Gen4 G19 and moved back to my Gen3 G19 which I carry EDC now. I was fortunate enough to get a set of FBI Contract sights from Ameriglo and then was sent the currently available "BOLD" set of FBI Contract sight equivalents which have been fantastic. Ameriglo literally designed a set of sights which crush the HD's in every single aspect in my opinion. The biggest factor was that the Ameriglo BOLD/FBI sights are POI/POA at 25y, point of ledge. Meaning you cut the target in half with the front sight and in the middle of that front sight is where the bullet should impact at 25y, if you do everything you are supposed to do.

(above image borrowed from pistol-training.com)

The above image shows three different types of iron sight alignments prevalent in the pistol iron sight market. The HD's are Sight Image 1. When I would shoot the 200 drill on an NRA B8 target in order to score hits in the X ring I would have to hold the ledge of the HD's at around the 8-9 ring (low). This is the biggest issue with HD's as the front sight is fairly thick compared to the Ameriglo BOLD sights and depending on ammo it may be a 8 ring hold or a mid 9 ring hold. Winchester White Box was a low 9 ring hold where PPU or Federal was a low 8 ring hold. At a distance of 10 yards and in you had to hold the HD's in Sight Image 3 or "point of dot" or "center of mass" or whatever else people call putting the dot over the exact place you want the bullet to go. I know there are people out there who are very accurate with Sight Image 3 and can hit bullseyes at 50y all day with that sight picture. I am not one of those people. I am vastly more accurate with a POA/POI, Sight Image 2, styled iron sight and for me that made the choice easy. Since I switched to the Ameriglo BOLD sights, Trijicon has released their XR HD sights. Which apparently is a step in the right direction except they still have the same clothing eating front sight issue and from what I have read online are not exactly POA/POI at 25y point of ledge. Also the square rear sight notch of the Ameriglo BOLD sights has been a really good change for me. I enjoyed the Pro-I Dot sights and the U-notch Trijicon boasts about is not exactly that rear for me. Obviously your experience may vary, but at this point in time, Trijicon missed the boat on the XR's and Ameriglo has been doing a great job listening to customers making exactly what they want.

As far as recommendations go, the field is extremely saturated and if you have a Glock that you CCW EDC, I would highly recommend you first figure out what you want your POA/POI to be at what distance and then find a reputable company to purchase a set of sights from which fit your particular mission. If your Glock came with OEM factory night sights then you should use them until you hit a wall with them and then move on up. Using nail polish to brighten up the front sight is always an option and if you do not want to do that then I would highly recommend getting a set of Defoor sights with or without a tritium dot, and if you absolutely need tritium on the front and/or rear then you should heavily consider Ameriglo's offerings and the "newest" set they offer are the BOLD sights are probably the set you want on your EDC Glock.